Carpentry {OPEN}

[Sea]

Anantzi pulled the awkward branch along with her, up the hill. Picasso had his teeth around the other end, as though he'd played fetch with too big a stick. He trotted along with the dark-skinned girl. Anantzi was dressed in a pair of tattered jeans, and around her four-armed torso was a shirt of vibrant red, yellow and green in tribal print patterns. The shirt was one shoulder, though there were three holes, so only one arm had no strap. Her dark skin shone in the sun. She was carrying a sling bag over her shoulder.
At the top of the hill, was a large tree. Its long branches spanned out far overhead, and shaded her pleasantly. She sat down with the stick, and placed the bag at her side. She pulled out a pocket knife. She sawed the branch down, so that it was about six feet long. She then set to work sawing off all the smaller branches. The stick was relatively straight, as straight a stick you could hope to find, really.

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

A tall, lanky man was bent double behind her, so that he could peer over her shoulder and discover her reasoning for the mauling of the stick. Though his bangs were chopped into a rough semblance of layers, the rest of his hair fell around his face like curtains, very long for a boy's.

Compared to the sunshiney day, full of lively greens and blues and fluffy white clouds, he stood out like a blight dipped in a coal factory. His skin was so dark that it would have been considered black, if his hair and sleeveless shirt had not provided a true example of the color. Knee-high black leather boots were met on one side by a slate gray half-skirt, the other side ending in bermuda shorts of the same color.

There was something about his aura that seemed to dim the colors around him a few shades, like a perpetual shadow. And like a shadow, he had just appeared behind her, his large dark eyes watching her work curiously.

"If you're trying to make more space for the air, you'd have better luck burning it. Why, with that little knife, it would take all day," he exclaimed, trying to be helpful.

[Sea]

Anantzi continued to work for a moment, until Picasso began to growl. The dark-skinned girl turned around. She hadn't been at Twilight Moon Academy, but she had some sort of idea of what was strange and what wasn't. Plus, she'd seen people who were dark like this, granted, not as dark, but rather close. She smiled.
"Jambo," she greeted, instictively slipping into Swahili at the sight of the dark skin. "Jina langu ni Anantzi." She bowed her head slightly, maintaining the pleasant smile. "Kaa chini." She patted the ground beside her, signalling for him to sit with her. "Jina lako nani?"

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

The man crouched down beside her pleasantly. "Nice to meet you as well. People don't often call me Come, but you could, if you wanted." There was an airy kind of vagueness in his eyes and smile that could make a person wonder if he was seeing the same picture as everyone else.

"But what are you and your child doing outside of the castle? It's very dangerous out here. Demons, even, if you can imagine. Demons that would steal away your very soul, after they had taken the last of your courage and strength. Very nasty business," he warned.

[Sea]

Anantzi smiled at the man named Come.
"I didn't know it would be dangerous here. It seems rather peaceful in this area. And this isn't my child. This is Picasso. I found him when he was a pup, after a wildfire. I don't know what happened to his real family." Anantzi continued to widdle away as she spoke. She had begun to use the knife to make decorative carvings.

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

"Peaceful?" He considered it, looking casually around, before nodding. "Yes, but a little bright." As some unspoken response to that, the shadows hovering around him deepened.

Bending down even further to the dog, he held out his hand to the small creature to shake. He was surprised by the furriness and altered bone structure of the child, but some species went through surprisingly complex metamorphosi before settling into an adult form. Her adoptive child Picasso didn't seem capable of any speech, so it was most probably very young. Possibly a larval stage of human. That would explain the fur and teeth, since a larval stage would need more protection before becoming a sly and cunning adult. Nodding pleasantly to it, he turned his attention back to Anantzi.

"That was charitable of you, when it wasn't your own young. What are you doing with that piece of tree, though? It's very curious."

[Sea]

"I'm making myself a walking stick. My grandmother taught me to make them," replied Anantzi. Several forms became more prominent in the ever-changing wood. A carved snake coiled towards the top. Figures of people, as well, decorated the long piece of wood. It had been carved to look slightly twisted, also. She began to carve into the top, to make some sort of hole there.

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

"You need a stick to walk?" Come said sympathetically. "That's very sad." Humans must become crippled at an early age... At least poor Picasso could still exercise his full mobility. "Do you need any assistance? Usually I'm quite free, so you wouldn't be a burden or any such thing," he assured her.

It was very true. He had no family except his dear sister and nephew, and they were skilled at taking care of themselves. Being a demon, he didn't really have to work for his living, so live he did, albeit without much purpose. This did not bother him much, though, since he was critically insane.

[Sea]

"Well, I don't need it, but I like to have it. It's to remind me of home," replied Anantzi. Several human forms could now be seen in the wood. "I kind of miss living out on the Savannah, you know? It's a beautiful place. Have you ever been there?" Picasso seemed to have settled down, now resting peacefully by Anantzi's side. His amber eyes were open however, constantly scanning the area. He had only taken on the semblance of rest. He rarely stopped watching for trouble.

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

"No, I don't think so," the demon replied. "I haven't been able to see this world very much since coming from Hell." A brief bit of pain flashed across his face, but it was gone in a less than a second. "Beautiful in what way? I would love to hear of it." The lands of this world were bright and beautiful, greens instead of reds and browns instead of blacks. But he also ached for home, and would probably return soon. No matter how harmful it might be, a home was still a sanctuary.

[Sea]

"In a way, it kind of looks like this place here. Endless plains, as far as the eye can see. Occasionally there'll be thickets or large trees. And there are so many animals.. lions, wildebeast, cape buffalo, springbok, gazelle, zebra, elephants, giraffe...." she trailed off. "Thousands of animals come in the wet season. It's the largest migration of mammals on earth." She smiled. "It's truly incredible." She paused. In her rapture of speaking of home, she'd almost missed the fact he said that he came from Hell. "You come from... Hell, you say?"

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

"It sounds amazing. I do enjoy elephants. So big and cuddly," he said warmly, promising he would go to see it sometime. Her question was not unheard, however, and he nodded pleasantly. "Yes, Hell, or Underworld, Inferno, Tatarus, Niflheim, Naraka, Jahannam, Duat, Jiyoku, Diyu..." He shrugged and smiled. "There's as many names for it as there are names for Germany. But not many demons come from anywhere else, unless they were created on this earth."

He looked at her consideringly, as if one would look at an unusual math problem. "I suppose I should take your soul, or at least your life."

[Sea]

Anantzi looked up nervously.
"Do what now?" She felt a bead of sweat flow down the back of her neck, and anxiety was hurling itself at her. She laughed nervously, her dark skin shining slightly with signs of perspiration. Her hands continued to work at the wood, but as her thoughts were elsewhere, it did not take long before the blade nicked into her finger. She looked down at it, looked back up at Come nervously, before carefully wiping the blood off in the grass. She gave him an anxious smile.

[Ladd Russo of the Russo Family]

"Well I am interested in culture, and that's what most of you humans say demons do. I wouldn't want to be contrary," he explained reasonably. The shadowy being did blink in surprise, however, when she cut herself. "You should be more careful, or that stick will end up carving you," Come said with a winning smile. "But feel free to finish your stick shaping before we start with the extraction. I hate being an Interrupting Eddie."